The Many Facets of Arthur
by GossipGirlHere
Summary: Ariadne is distracted from her work as she contemplates her devilishly handsome point-man.


**This is just a little something I couldn't get out of my head. Enjoy!**

Ariadne paused, looking up from the model she'd been working on for their next extraction job as she watched her husband from across the room, stroking her slightly protruding baby-belly thoughtfully, wondering idly if the baby would be a boy this time, or another girl.

As she watched Arthur, buried deep in his notes, his brow furrowed in concentration she couldn't help but smile as she considered the many facets of her husband. When he was here in the warehouse working on another job he was the dashing, gentlemanly point-man that she first fell in love with. He was serious, concentrating always on the work that needed to be done, pausing only to send her a wistful look from across the room every once and a while. He communicated mostly through his trademark smirk or short, to-the-point sentences. However, even on the job, he was a different point-man with her, offering her advice about her mazes, providing her useful information, explaining thing in detail, wanting her to understand everything. As the point-man he was cool, calm, smooth, collected, chivalrous, but still managing to look devilishly handsome in a three-piece designer suit.

Arthur her husband was different than Arthur the point-man in many ways. He was still smooth, gentlemanly, and devilishly handsome in a three-piece suit, but he lost some of the calm and collected. He allowed the intensity of his emotions to come out, whereas he let it hide behind his eyes when he was the point-man. Arthur her husband still had a plan ninety-nine percent of the time, but unlike point-man Arthur he didn't always stay directly on top of his work, and was just as content as her to spend mornings lying around lazily in bed and just enjoying being together.

Her relationship with Arthur was what made her understand Mal's words to her all those years ago: _Do you have any idea what it is to be a lover? To be half of whole?_ She was half of a whole with Arthur, and she never wanted to be anything else. Arthur, despite what many people would've guessed by looking a him, wasn't at all patronizing. Of course he wanted what was best for her and their family always, but he never would push her into things she didn't want to do, except in the rare occasions when it was extremely important to him, and in those cases she would normally comply with whatever he asked, because he'd given her so much and all wanted was the best for her. But, he didn't try to take care of her the way many might have expected. Of course, he was always there to help her, but he never assumed that she wasn't just as capable, if not more capable than he was at whatever they were trying to accomplish.

She loved when Arthur the husband made appearances at the warehouse, temporarily overshadowing Arthur the point-man, and though this happened rarely, as they were both determined to keep things as professional as possible for the sake of the rest of the team, it was more special to her because it happened less often. For instance, though they took a few days off at their anniversary every year, or they did before Charlotte was born, so that they could go travel, in the days before the trip Arthur the point-man would go into hiding and Arthur the husband was there always, at work and at home. Though he tried to avoid too many public displays of affection, there were definitely more than usual.

Thinking of their beautiful, three year old daughter Charlotte made Ariadne consider Arthur the father, once again beginning to rub circles on her baby-bump. Arthur the father was one that she loved to watch because the role suited him so well, even better than his three-piece suits, she couldn't help thinking with a smirk. He was so gentle, so loving, so caring with their little daughter, and, even in front of Eames, who would make as many snide comments as humanly possible, he was never embarrassed to do what needed to be done to be a good father. Whether it was get laughed at by Eames when he discovered that Arthur cooked chocolate-chip pancakes with whipped-cream smiley faces for their little daughter, Eames making several snide comments about his domesticity, or, when Charlotte was first born and Ariadne took a few months off of work, calling every few hours, much to Ariadne's endearment, to make sure that they were all doing okay, making it clear that he would've rushed home and a moment's notice, and making good on that promise on more than a few occasions. Now that Charlotte was old enough to stay with Professor Miles, who had just recently retired, or with Cobb, Phillipa and James during the day, as Cobb was still very involved in all of their lives and had actually relocated his family Paris, Arthur still made sure to call at least once in the middle of the work day to check on his princess.

As if on cue, Arthur, who'd been working diligently until that point, stood up, pulled out his cell phone, and began dialing as he made his way out of the warehouse. She heard him say, "Hey, pumpkin, how are you?" as the door closed with a snap.

She smiled to herself, still rubbing small circles on her belly, and continued with her interrupted thoughts.

Of course, all of these different Arthurs: Arthur the point-man, Arthur the husband, Arthur the father, were all just many facets of the one Arthur that she was so in love with. The smooth, chivalrous, gentlemanly, planner that was her husband. He knew how to adapt to his many different roles, how to blend them, and how to transition between them with ease and grace, just as he accomplished everything else. It was he, in fact, who came up with the rule that they not talk about work at home, an idea that she loved because it meant that when they were at home they could focus their full attention on their little daughter, they could visit with Professor Miles or with Cobb and his kids, and they never had to worry about what job they were on or what information they still needed, or what dream-level design still wasn't finished.

Arthur came back a few minutes later, Eames rolling his eyes at him as he did every day after Arthur returned from calling their princess. However, while Arthur returned to his work and Ariadne returned to watching him, Eames threw down the paper he was jotting notes down onto and sauntered over to where Ariadne was standing, still watching Arthur.

"You do realize," he said lazily when he reached her, "That you've done no work for the past half-hour? That's supposed to be my job. All you've done is watch that point-man of yours."

Ariadne raised her eyebrows at him, "Is that a problem?" she asked.

"Well it is slightly nauseating for Yusuf and myself," he said with lazily indifferent elegance.

"Well then you can look the other way," she said, elbowing him, "Now get lost."

"Fine, fine," he sighed, when he saw that Arthur was walking over, "The point-man's heading this way anyway, and you know I won't suffer his presence when I don't have to." He sauntered back to his desk, and Ariadne couldn't help but smirk because, though they tried desperately to pretend to hate eachother and they snapped at eachother all the time, she knew that Arthur and Eames were excessively fond of eachother.

Arthur wrapped his arms around Ariadne, his hands finding their usual places on her four-moths pregnant belly. He kissed her neck and she closed her eyes, breathing in his wonderfully familiar scent. She turned her head towards him so she could kiss him on the lips.

They'd only been kissing a moment before Eames said lazily, but still in a voice that carried, from his desk, "Oh, get a room would you? Oh, wait, it appears you already did that..."

They heard Yusuf's friendly laugh, from his desk where he was mixing several compounds, but did not break kiss. Ariadne knew that Arthur was now doing it partly just to irritate Eames further, because he deepened the kiss, turning her around as he pulled her as close to him as her ever-expanding stomach would allow. She kissed him hungrily, but broke away when she heard Eames wolf-whistle pointedly.

"What do you say we quit for the day?" Arthur whispered to her, still out of breath.

"I'll meet you at the car," she said, grabbing her back from the floor and piling stuff in it, while Arthur went to his desk and piled stuff into his.

"Unbelievable," muttered Eames, before saying a little louder, "You know, you two might have forgotten, but some of us actually _work_ every now and then..."

They ignored him.

**Reviews, as always, are appreciated.**

**XOXO**

**GossipGirlHere  
**


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